Pamela Wilkie
Not Father's Day
He only asked for basic creature comfort,
a gift he hadn’t known for half a lifetime,
the warmth of another human body,
a heart beating close in the chilling night.
It should have been so natural, so humane,
something people turn to in extremis -
adrift in an open boat in icy water,
trapped on a high ledge where the air is thin.
You’d be quite safe you know. Not an easy
thing to say with any dignity at eighty.
Nor could she pretend to be afraid -
his fragile need would hardly be a threat.
Legends ago he might have drunk such kindness
at her breast. But not today. Not now.
Page(s) 29
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